Click to viewThe advent of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) forever revolutionized personal computing. A windowed system with point and click icons made computers usable for anyone who couldn't deal with a black screen and a prompt waiting for arcane textual commands. But in recent years, this enormous interface change is coming full circle. Amongst power users - and more and more, regular Joe's - the command line is making a comeback in modern web and desktop applications.

But I don't use the command line, you say. Oh but you do! Let's take a closer look at this surprising "circle of life" right back to the trusty old command line with some examples of CLI in modern personal computing.

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I define a command line interface as a single input box that can execute complex operations based on what you type there. The command line isn't only used by Unix beards, Terminal freaks and Cygwin experts; you use it every day, probably several times a day. Case in point: the Google search box.

The search box

One might argue that a search box isn't a command line, but it is a single input box and specialized text commands (like Google's advanced operators) can do complex math, convert currency, specify filetypes, sites and more in deep, nested commands. For example, this valid Google search returns music files of certain types with the word Nirvana in the link from certain pages all over the web:

Similarly, Google offers the same thing for your local computer with Google Desktop. Hit the Control key twice to summon the GDesktop search box and you can use all the advanced operators Google's web search product offers.

In Vista, the Windows key summons the Start menu and puts your cursor in the search box. From there type any keyword to get instant access to what you need.

Firefox's Location bar

The other unlikely command line you may not know you have is Firefox's location bar. It ain't just for web site addresses, my friend. Adam and I have both raved about Firefox's Quick Search capability, which assigns keywords to URLs for quick access to web sites. How they work is difficult to describe in words, so I put together a short movie showing off my current favorites. Click on the image to check it out (popup window).

The difference between taking the main roads across town instead of back roads may be that the main roads are easier—but take longer. However, if you drive across town every day, it's worth your time learning the back road shortcuts.

The GUI is the "main road" from point A to point B: it's obvious and easy to describe and intuit, but it takes longer. The CLI takes longer to learn, but will get you there in less time.

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How much do you use the CLI in your day-to-day computing? Let us know in the comments.

Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, loves a good, powerful text command. Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.